The Kent State University community will celebrate today as it relaunches its newest building — the newly renovated Franklin Hall.

There will be a formal dedication at 1:30 p.m. and an open house from 2 p.m. through the afternoon for the stately, neoclassical building.

University officials have put more than $22 million into the new home for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which opened for classes last fall.

''We can start to do some of the things that weren't possible in the old buildings,'' said Jeff Fruit, director of the school. ''It's a really great opportunity to move ahead on the next generation of media.''

Franklin Hall was built in 1926 for $350,000 as KSU's first University School. It is situated on the historic North Campus, the wooded slope dotted with buildings dating to the start of the university in 1910 as a teacher-training facility.

Over the last 25 years, KSU has spent more than $50 million
to update all the other buildings on the North Campus' circular drive: Lowry, Merrill, Moulton, McGilvrey, Rockwell, Cartwright and Kent halls.

The redo for Franklin was more expensive because construction costs shot up over the quarter century that the North Campus renovations were in progress.

Franklin also had fallen into disrepair and it needed a host of technological improvements to serve the 1,100 students in today's media programs. At 60,000 square feet, it was too small to meet the school's needs, so a 20,000-square-foot wing was added.

After gutting Franklin, the university installed air conditioning, modern windows, new stairs, a 150-seat lecture hall, 80,000 square feet for digital TV and radio studios, wireless Internet access and a joint newsroom for the student television station, newspaper, radio station and magazine.

Michael Bruder, director of design and construction in the KSU architect's office, said Franklin is the most technologically advanced building for students on campus.

''They have a high-speed network within the building and they went completely digital,'' Bruder said.

About $15 million of the cost was funded with state tax money. Another $1.2 million was privately donated; contributions are being sought for the balance.

Meanwhile, the completion of Franklin last fall set off something of a chain reaction elsewhere on campus.

With the print and photo programs out of the basement of Taylor Hall, that space is being renovated for the School of Communication Studies and for the School of Architecture and Environmental Design, the latter of which already occupies the rest of the building. Space also has been set aside for a visitors center to commemorate the shootings of students by Ohio National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970.

With the broadcast programs out of the Music and Speech Center, the university is using a $6.5 million gift from the Roe Green Foundation and $6.5 million in state money for renovations to serve the School of Theatre and Dance.

The building will get two additions totaling 30,000 square feet — one for a black box, or experimental, theater, and the other for dance studios now in the Gym Annex.

That will enable the school to bring the dance and theater programs under the same roof for the first time.

That's in part what Franklin achieved for journalism and mass media.

The new Franklin brings together students studying all aspects of media — from news to public relations to electronic media production — for the first time in the university's history.

Franklin's open house is free;. For details, call 330-672-2572.